A dance a minute

Submitted by admin on Mon, 12/07/2009 - 4:26pm

There is no attention span too deficient, no mind too meandering to appreciate “60x60 Dance.” The performance, staged before a full house last month at the Winter Garden in Battery Park City, is named for the number and brevity of its pieces: 60 works in 60 minutes. Though broadly “modern,” the music and choreography are too disparate to be lumped under one label. And no sooner might you decide that you like (or don’t) one piece, it is gone, only to be followed by another, altogether different one.

There isn’t even time to clap.

“The point of the project is to get as many artists as we can out to as many audiences as we can,” said composer Robert Voisey, the event’s producer, whose organization, Vox Novus, produces and promotes new music. Voisey has organized more than 150 “60x60” events showcasing dance, music and video. All of them feature a clock, always there as a re­minder of time elapsed, time remaining. As Voisey says, it’s a way to prove the artists aren’t cheating.

The result is an eclectic and delightful stew of original music and choreography. “Every single show surprises me,” Voisey says.